I represented two horrible husband and wife buyers on a Fauquier County farm recently. The husband did not want the property but the wife was dying for it.

It was contingent on my buyer getting a mortgage of 80% at no less than 5.5%.

When the date came for the financing contingency, my buyer acted like he had no idea what was going on.

So the listing agent and myself chased down his mortgage broker and asked for his loan approval letter.

He faxed it to the selling agent who then faxed it to me...It was nothing more than a bunch of numbers and sleazy mortgage jiberish.

The selling agent said "Ok, if this is their loan approval letter than so be it. If your buyers cannot come up with the loan then we'll take their deposit."

I was fine with this, since I am always broke and did not want to make more problems.

14 days after the contract closing date had passed, my buyer's paralegal calls and says "we are ready to close".

"Really...I asked, do they have the $537,000 downpayment?" "Ahhhh, nope, only $237,000. They want a note from the sellers for $300,000, she says."

"What!!!!!" I howled, "The sellers now hate the buyers for being so sleazy and uncooperative."

Sure enough, the sellers said "no way!!!" and the deal fell apart within 1 hour of getting the call from the paralegal.

The sellers then asked for an immediate Release from my buyers attorney and my buyers signed it "as long as they would get their deposit back."

 My broker refused to sign the Release. All other parties did.

My broker went to sue my buyers for our 3% commission but the 2 attorneys we interviewed said we had no case because:

1) The loan approval letter was a joke and meant nothing (but had been accepted by the sellers agent who said: "If your sellers do not worry about their mortgage then I won't because in Virginia the clock just keeps ticking giving the buyers unlimited time to find funding."

2) The sellers signed a Release

So long $47,000...so long kiddies summer vacation....so long boarding school for next year...so long hairtransplant...so long liver transplant. Hello foreclosureville!

So remember, always get a legitimate loan approval letter from the lender!!!!!!!